Long standing member's update

Submitted by Barbie Doll on June 25, 2018 - 11:19am
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Update on my pelvic organ prolapse. I went to my doctor when I was 72 years old with a bulge in my vagina. She said I had cystocele and there was nothing she can do for me and sent me to 4 weeks of physical therapist (pt). The PT told me to do kegels but I knew it wasn't helping my problem so I quit and found Whole Women! I followed the Whole Women's posture, exercise and diet and lived with my cystocele for a couple of years and then I noticed a rectocele. I was fine until I was 81 years old and my bulge was pretty big by then and I started getting UTI every month it became very uncomfortable. I decided I needed to do more than WM so I searched and read everything I could about the pelvic organ prolapse. I know WM is strongly against surgery but at this point I needed something to help my bulge. I found a fellowship trained urogynocologist who had just completed a three year fellowship just on pelvic organ prolapse and he was recommended to me by my urologist who treated me for continued UTI caused by my prolapse. At age 82 I decided to have the surgery reconstructing my pelvic area. I had the surgery in April and it was very successful. It's been 2 months now and I no longer have the bulge and feel so good and have a lot more energy so I would recommend surgery for prolapse if nothing else works but find a good doctor specialized in this area. You will know when it's time to take the step.

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Surviving60

June 25, 2018 - 3:59pm

Hi and thanks for your post. In the best interest of anyone who comes to our Forum, it behooves me to give the most honest and real response that I can.

Though you may consider yourself a long-standing member, you have never posted anything about your experiences with the WW work. No comments and no questions relating to it. Thus, no one, not even you, can be sure that you really understand it, and if you've been doing it, that you've been doing it correctly. I have 'celes myself, and at the age of 68 I can assure anyone who asks, that I will never ever need surgery to manage my symptoms.

Surgeries do often provide temporary relief from symptoms, but only for a period of time, and only by irrevocably destroying the natural dynamics of pelvic organ support. In a few months, or in a few years, if the surgery fails, you will have no recourse but to have more surgery, and each procedure will be less and less effective. The first surgery is a slippery slope and a decision from which there is no going back. This is why we work so hard to keep women out of the operating room.

I assume that you have your uterus. At your age, if you are careful, you may be fortunate, and this "repair" may last you as long as you need it to. But we will never let anyone come onto this forum recommending surgeries to women who have all their organs intact, have had no repairs, and are in reasonably good health and able to move freely through life. For these women, surgery is the wrong decision. - Surviving

SET

July 23, 2018 - 6:51am

Hi Surviving...thank you for your sober comments on Barbie's post. I can understand how she got to that decision and I appreciate your pulling us all back from the brink of that option, especially because it seems there is a lot of unexplored resolution available in the WW work.

Surviving60

July 23, 2018 - 10:36am

Thanks for your post. Yes, it does disturb me when someone uses our forum to push surgery in such a matter-of-fact way. To treat surgery as inevitable - is completely wrong and is a dangerous and damaging message to women who come here. It won't be tolerated on the forum. - Surviving